Principal Software Engineer, Backend

Imprint is reimagining co-branded credit cards & financial products to be smarter, more rewarding, and truly brand-first. We partner with companies like Rakuten, Booking.com, H-E-B, Fetch, and Brooks Brothers to launch modern credit programs that deepen loyalty, unlock savings, and drive growth. Our platform combines advanced payments infrastructure, intelligent underwriting, and seamless UX to help brands offer powerful financial products—without becoming a bank.

Co-branded cards account for over $300 billion in U.S. annual spend—but most are still powered by legacy banks. Imprint is the modern alternative: flexible, tech-forward, and built for today’s consumer. Backed by Kleiner Perkins, Thrive Capital, and Khosla Ventures, we’re building a world-class team to redefine how people pay—and how brands grow. If you want to work fast, solve hard problems, and make a real impact, we’d love to meet you.

As the Principal Engineer of this team, your responsibilities will include but not be limited to the following:

• Technical Leadership and Oversight

  • Define and drive the technical vision and architecture for the lending platform, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices

  • Lead the design and development of scalable, secure, reliable, and high-performance systems for both co-branded credit and non-card lending products

  • Code some of the more complex parts of the system and, by example, create a center of coding excellence in the team.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product management, risk, compliance, and operations, to ensure cohesive and efficient delivery of the platform

• System Architecture and Design

  • Architect end-to-end solutions for lending products, incorporating data security, compliance and performance optimization

  • Evaluate and select appropriate technologies, frameworks, and tools to meet the platform’s requirements and future scalability

  • Ensure the system design supports high availability, disaster recovery, and easy maintenance

• Leading the Team

  • Lead the engineering teams through execution, ensuring adherence to coding standards, security guidelines, and best practices. 

  • Oversee the development process, including code reviews, testing, and deployment to ensure high-quality deliverables

  • Foster continuous improvement and hold the team accountable for upholding the highest standards.

• Communication and Collaboration

  • Work closely with stakeholders to understand business requirements, translate them into technical specifications, and ensure their successful implementation.

  • Mentor and guide engineering teams, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning

  • Communicate effectively with executive leadership, and provide updates on project status, technical challenges, and strategic direction.

• Innovation

  • Encourage a culture of innovation within the team, promoting experimentation and learning

  • Identify opportunities for innovation and lead initiatives to enhance platform capabilities and competitive edge.

  • Stay abreast of fintech industry trends, and regulatory changes impacting the lending landscape

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering with at least 5 years of experience leading the technical direction of the organization or company

• Experience designing and building complex financial systems, particularly in the fintech domain

• Experience designing and implementing a coherent architecture that interacts seamlessly across multiple APIs and system boundaries.

• Extensive experience with cloud platforms and microservices architecture. AWS preferable

• Deep experience with building transactional systems using relational databases (e.g. MySQL, Postgres) or No-SQL databases (e.g. DynamoDB, MongoDB)

• Production experience with modern engineering and cloud tools 

• Strong proficiency in modern programming languages (e.g., go, java) and frameworks

• Deep understanding of data security, compliance(e.g.PCI-DSS), and privacy regulations

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify and resolve complex issues

• Strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive

• Bachelor’s or Masters Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field

• Experience building and launching payment platforms for lending, credit/debit card issuing and processing

• Experienced in building online and offline systems that encompass the reconciliation of financial data

• Experience building external, public-facing APIs is a plus

• Knowledge of production technologies like Terraform, Docker, and k8s is a plus

• Competitive compensation and equity packages

• Leading configured work computers of your choice

• Flexible paid time off

• Fully covered, high-quality healthcare, including fully covered dependent coverage

• Additional health coverage includes access to One Medical and the option to enroll in an FSA

• 16 weeks of paid parental leave for the primary caregiver and 8 weeks for all new parents

• Access to industry-leading technology across all of our business units, stemming from our philosophy that we should invest in resources for our team that foster innovation, optimization, and productivity

Imprint is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Imprint is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. Imprint welcomes talented individuals from all backgrounds who want to build the future of payments and rewards. If you are passionate about FinTech and eager to grow, let’s move the world forward, together.